Month: September 2018

You’re probably wondering how this sheet pan chicken and veggies is different. We’ve all seen a million sheet pan dinners online. I get it: you get home, and you don’t want to chop more veggies or wash more dishes than you have to. I support […]

When life gives you apples, you make homemade applesauce. It’s fall, y’all! And Mother Nature is giving us a lot of apples. I don’t know about you, but I can’t resist it when I’m walking through the grocery store, and heaps of red and pink […]

This honey glazed challah is the best thing I have ever made. And I don’t say that lightly. Something about this combination of good fresh honey, tender inner dough, and the burnished outer crust of the challah makes my heart skip a beat. I was literally cooing to the loaf as it came out of the oven, and I’m sure it will happen again.

In case you’re not familiar with it, challah is a gloriously rich and eggy Jewish bread, often eaten around Jewish holidays. But it’s also perfectly fine for you to make challah to celebrate a random Friday.

A few notes: the quality of honey used in the honey glazed challah really does matter. You can use normal honey, but using good honey really improves the taste. Also note that you can adapt this recipe to be an unflavored challah; simply omit the optional thyme, the lemon zest, the lemon juice, and all but 1/3 cup of the honey. Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen’s fig and sea salt challah recipe.

Ingredients

2 1/4 teaspoons yeast

1 cup good honey

2/3 cup warm water

1/3 cup olive oil, plus 1 tablespoon

4 eggs

2 teaspoons flaky salt

4 cups all-purpose flour

Zest of two lemons

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons thyme, optional

Instructions

First, dissolve 1 teaspoon of the honey in warm water. Stir in the yeast, and let it sit until foamy. Combine the yeast mixture with 1/2 cup honey, 1/3 cup olive oil, and 3 eggs. Stir in the salt and flour, until the dough begins to hold together. Knead (by hand or with a dough hook) until smooth and stretchy: for 5-10 minutes. Move your dough to a large oiled bowl, cover, and allow to rise for at least one hour.

After resting the dough, tip it out onto a large floured surface. Roll the dough into four long strands. These will be the base for your challah braids.

To braid your challah, arrange the four ropes into a shape like a tight tic-tac-toe board. Arrange the ropes so that each is under one rope and under another rope (replicating the center of the shape in the image below). Take the four rope ends that are underneath, and jump them over the rope to their left. Take the other ropes and jump them over the ropes to the right. Tuck the ends underneath the dough.

(If you need to see it visually, I recommend this video about braiding challah. However, you just need to make it look somewhat organized, and you’ll be fine.)

This is what the challah should look like after its second rise. Note that I decided to use the thyme on this version.

Move your honey glazed challah to an oiled cookie sheet or a baker’s stone. Drizzle with the rest of the honey and sprinkle with thyme, if using. Beat your remaining egg until smooth, and brush over the bread. Allow the challah to rise for one hour.

Preheat your oven to 370 F. Coat your challah one more time with the egg wash before baking for 35 to 40 minutes. Check every ten minutes to see if the loaf is browning too quickly; if it is, tent it with foil. The loaf will be done when the inner temperature has reached 195 degrees F. Cool before serving. Enjoy!

Okay, so you’re probably wondering what lemon icebox pie is. Traditionally, icebox pies are remnants of hot Southern summers when, with no air-conditioning to cool off, you would want a pie that can do it instead. Icebox pies may still be baked, but they require […]

It’s okay, summer’s not quite over yet! If you’re not ready for pumpkin spice, whip up a watermelon agua fresca. Agua fresca is pretty much just fruit, lime juice, and sweetener, blended into a icy, frothy concoction. It’s cool and sweet, exotic and easy. You […]

Is there anything more Southern than fried green tomatoes? If you’re wondering why you would bother frying them in the first place, the answer is because they’re dang good. The second answer is because they don’t fall apart as easily as ripe tomatoes, and most people need more ways to eat their summer tomato bounty.

You can make restaurant quality fried green tomatoes at home, and they are thankfully difficult to mess up. Eat them with the condiment of your choice, some pimento cheese, or even pop them into a BLT or a grilled cheese sandwich. The possibilities are endless. Enjoy!

Ingredients

Vegetable oil

4 green tomatoes

1 cup flour

1 tablespoon garlic powder

4 eggs

3 tablespoons milk

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon paprika

1 1/2 cups plain bread crumbs

Salt

Pepper

Here’s my example prep setup.

Instructions

Cut each tomato into 1/4 inch slices. Mix flour and garlic powder in a shallow dish. Beat eggs with the milk in a second shallow dish. In a third shallow dish, mix cayenne, paprika, and bread crumbs.

Heat half an inch of vegetable oil in a frying pan until it spatters when a drop of water is flicked in. Dredge the tomatoes in flour, then eggs, then bread crumbs. 2-4 tomatoes at a time, until golden brown on each side, which takes about 2 minutes. Drain on paper towels and serve warm.

You guys, chocolate is amazing. There’s a reason why people used to consider it the food of the gods. If you’re not convinced yet, these triple chocolate cookies should do the job! There’s cocoa, melted chocolate, and chocolate chips. It might seem extravagant, but I […]

Okay, so there are two kinds of ratatouille. There’s the pretty kind, as seen is Disney’s Ratatouille, and then there’s the sloppy kind, where you just throw everything in all together. This is the pretty kind: Remy’s ratatouille. Surprisingly, Remy’s ratatouille isn’t that hard. You just […]